Built to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the charter, but missing the deadline by three years, Writ in Water finally opens this weekend – a place in which to contemplate rights continually under threatBetween the Thames, Windsor Great Park and the M25 is a series of lush meadows, knee-high in midsummer grass and buttercups, that were given to the National Trust in the 1930s. They are grazed by cattle and dotted with oaks, and would be pastoral and peaceful were it not for the A-road traffic churning by and the occasional aircraft coming into Heathrow. Somewhere here, in June 1215, Magna Carta was sealed.Despite its many archaic clauses, and its revisions over the years, the 3,500-word document that King John’s rebellious barons forced him to accept stands as a statement of legal principles that continues to resonate in Britain and beyond. Its most important provisions include that justice should be done not arbitrarily, but according to the law of the land; that justice cannot be sold; and that no one, even the monarch, is above the law. Continue reading…
Via: Laying down the law: Mark Wallinger's Magna Carta chamber
Categories: English News